When looking for that perfect transportation partner you will frequently come across the term logistics. But what exactly is logistics and how is it related to transportation. In this post we’d like to clear that all up. Afterall, you’ve likely read these two terms being used interchangeably, but they are not.
What is a transportation service?
For the purpose of this blog post we will stick the understanding that most of our clientele are transporting freight, as opposed to people, but the terminology remains the same. Transportation services are the actual moving of freight from one location to another. This is done primarily by highway, rail, sea, and air.
What are logistics services?
Logistics services are a little more involved than transportation. Logistics is defined as obtaining and distributing goods (freight) for the purpose of delivering that freight to another destination. Logistics also includes planning, implementation, and managing procedures to transport freight as efficient and effectively as possible.
How do they relate?
While transportation is the physical act of moving freight, logistics is pretty much everything surrounding and including transportation. Logistics is what bring transportation to life by determining and making adjustments to everything surrounding transportation. For example, a logistics manager may have to make decisions regarding packaging, documentation, insurance, storage, permitting, importing and exporting regulations, labeling freight, freight damage claims, vendors, transportation partners, risk mitigation and the actual containerization of the product and the transportation reliability.
So, while transporting your freight may seem like a fairly easy task for anyone in a truck, the fact is that the logistics of transportation is pretty complicated and requires the assistance of a trained and logistics leader like those you’ll find at Moving America Forward.
Contact us today if you have any questions regarding logistics or the reliable transportation of your freight. We are here to help you move your freight as efficiently and effectively as possible.
